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By 
Rev. GEORGE H. FERRIS, D. D. 

Author of 

" The Formation of the New Testament " 

"Elements of Spirituality" 



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THE GRIFFITH AND ROWLAND PRESS 

PHILADELPHIA 
BOSTON ST. LOUIS LOS ANGELES 

CHICAGO NEW YORK TORONTO 



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Copyright 191 7 by 
GUY C. LAMSON, Secretary 



Published October, 1917 



NOV 28 1917 

©C!,A477751 



CONTENTS 



Page 

I 

The Soul's Christmas i 



II 
The Wise Men 15 

III 
The Might of the Meek 29 

IV 
What Think Ye of Christ? 43 

V 
Above Every Name 57 



" THE SOUL'S CHRISTMAS " 
" Until Christ be formed in you." — Gal. 4 : 19. 



"THE SOUL'S CHRISTMAS" 

WHO would venture to write the history of 
Christmas ? The manger has shed a radiance 
on humanity never seen there before. The bright- 
ness of its glory has descended into cheerless abodes 
and haunts of misery. It tamed the rude soul of the 
barbarian. It kept alive a spark of kindness in the 
darkest ages. It predicted for the lowest a destiny 
of which the highest dared not dream. It shone 
through the spirit of Chivalry, in its dedication to 
the cause of the weak, the injured, the oppressed, 
the unprotected. Where, in all literature, is there 
anything more beautiful than that weird little Christ- 
mas dream of the common people, which Shake- 
speare, with exquisite skill, has brought over to us 
from the age of superstition? 

Some say that ever 'gainst that season comes 
Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated, 
The bird of dawning singeth all night long: 
And then, they say, no spirit dare stir abroad, 
The nights are wholesome, then no planets strike, 
No fairy takes nor witch hath power to charm, 
So hallow'd and so gracious is the time. 

Go to Pompeii, and walk through those streets, 
where, amid volcanic ashes, there has been preserved 

3 



4 THE soul's CHRISTMAS 

for US a picture of life as it was lived before Christ 
came. Show me one building to which you can 
point and say, '' Here was a home for the bent and 
aged ! " or '' Here was a retreat for the maimed and 
deformed ! " or '' In this structure was a shelter for 
orphaned children ! '' or '' In yonder walls manu- 
scripts were kept for the perusal of the poor ! " or 
'' Behind these doors the unbalanced mind was 
studied and trained in the hope of dawning intel- 
ligence ! " Not a hint of these things will you find 
anywhere. 

If this city of ours were buried under ashes 
to-night, and in two thousand years some archeol- 
ogist were to resurrect it from the silent mounds, 
what a different story he would tell. Again and 
again, as the trenches ran along the ancient streets, 
he would happen upon a building with a history. 
" The power that erected this structure," he would 
say, " began in the cradle of a manger. It mani- 
fested itself first in Galilee. It went through fish- 
ing villages, teaching the ignorant, comforting the 
downhearted, forgiving the erring, encouraging the 
weak, and ushering in a kingdom of undying love 
and joy. Through ages dark and lands desolate it 
lived on, manifesting its might by its power to re- 
generate the lives of men." 

The birth of Christ in the soul is the heart of 
the message of Paul. There is a vein of mysticism 
in the Christianity of Paul. He tells the Colos- 
sians that Christ is '' in us, the hope of glory." 



THE SOUL S CHRISTMAS 5. 

His Wish for the Ephesians is '' that Christ may 
dwell in your hearts by faith." He assures the 
Romans that " if Christ is in us, the flesh is dead." 
He is doubly serious, as he says to the Corinthians : 
*' Ye seek a proof of Christ speaking in me." It is 
Christ " who is our life." '' We have the mind of 
Christ." The love of Christ " constraineth " us. 
The word of Christ is to *' dwell in us richly." If 
we have not the spirit of Christ, " we are none 
of his." Even the " foolish," " bewitched " Gala- 
tians, who '' ran well," and then were ''hindered," 
who would have '' plucked out their eyes " for him 
at first, but later listened to the voice of the 
slanderer, drew from him the words we have 
chosen for our Christmas text, " Until Christ be 
formed in you." 

He believed that Christ is bom and brought up in 
the soul of the individual. He believed that there 
is an inner Christmas, a new incarnation, a sub- 
jective enactment of the Bethlehem story, every 
time a human being yields to that mysterious Spirit 
that somehow stirs amid our deepest affections, and 
whispers its messages to our waiting souls. He be- 
lieved that when we cross the threshold into the 
kingdom of truth, and wake the drowsy faculties of 
repentant enthusiasm, the hosts of God enter the 
heart, singing the song of peace and good will. 

Just as Christ was born in humility, and lived 
among the poor, and carried the power of his com- 
passion to the lowest depths of social wretchedness, 



6 THE SOUL S CHRISTMAS 

SO the new Christ is born a struggling and helpless 
impulse, away down in the turbid depths of our 
selfishness and our sin, striving to purify and beau- 
tify the darkest portions of our lives. Just as 
Christ was surrounded by the wild and towering 
forces of human ambition and pride, by the em- 
pires built on force and the systems upheld by 
ignorance, so the new Christ, in the soul's Bethle- 
hem, has numberless powerful enemies of greed, 
of appetite, of prejudice, of ambition, of self- 
interest, and of sloth, who are ever striving to 
crush or crucify their new-born King. 

To be sure Paul is not always clear or consistent 
in his treatment of this strange thought of an inner 
Christmas. To be sure he leaves the thought far 
more vague and indefinite than we have made it this 
morning. Sometimes he calls these impulses our 
own; sometimes he calls them God; sometimes he 
calls them Christ. In this he simply takes his place 
among the truest prophets and noblest spiritual 
thinkers of the ages, who have ever been ready to 
confess their darkness as to the exact place where 
our own soul leaves off, and the power of God 
begins. It was Emerson who wrote of Love, 

Draw, if thou canst, the mystic line 
Severing rightly his from thine. 
Which is human, which divine. 

What better name can we find for this spirit, 
than to call it '' Christ '' ? What better description 



THE soul's CHRISTMAS ^ 

can we give to this new life in the soul than to 
call it an " inner Christmas ? " Let me give you 
what to my mind is the best definition of the divinity 
of Christ to be found in modern theological litera- 
ture. The writer has been speaking of this visit 
of God to the soul. " If, in Christ/' he says, " this 
divine margin was not simply broader than else- 
where, but spread till it covered the whole soul, 
and brought the human into moral coalescence with 
the divine, then was God not merely represented 
by a foreign and resembling being; but was per- 
sonally there, giving expression to his spiritual 
nature, as in the visible universe to his causal 
power." 

This is the Christmas thought. It is God filling 
a human life. It is a radiant vision of the per- 
sonality of truth. It is a new revelation of the 
possibility of righteousness. In a world so full 
of imperfect ideals, was it not fitting that at 
least once in history God should not simply cross 
the threshold of a soul, but take complete possession 
of it? In a world whose models of manhood are 
forever mingling genius with selfishness, tolerance 
with cowardice, heroism with ruthlessness, belief 
with bigotry, pity with weakness, was it not essen- 
tial that once there should be a balanced character, 
where God could manifest himself in such a manner 
that nothing opposed to his divine will and love 
could enter that realm of untarnished purity and 
unfaltering faith? Do you complain that this is 



8 THE soul's CHRISTMAS 

not clear? I answer that it is as clear as we can 
be, until we no longer " see as in a mirror, darkly/' 

This is " the mystery of godliness." Tell me how 
the heart of one man can embrace the world. Tell 
me how a soul, fit to lead the ranks of heaven, can 
enter into the sorrow and needs of the lowest social 
misery. Tell me how a being, hounded, hated, and 
tortured, can pray for the ungrateful, and maintain 
a sweetness and purity as unsoiled as the rays of 
the dawn. Tell me how any mind can so compass 
the belief in the infinite worth of a man that it keeps 
constantly before it the vast difference, the eternity, 
that separates the darkness of wickedness from the 
darkness of sorrow. Tell me all this, and I will 
admit that you have explained Christ. 

To be able to give a history of his preexistence 
would merely satisfy my metaphysics. To know 
exactly the scale of his rank in the heavenly forces 
would be an interesting bit of information, ap- 
pealing to the curiosity of my understanding. But 
when I hear the story of his lowly birth, and feel 
the power of his all-conquering love, then is Christ- 
mas repeated in my soul. When I see him breath- 
ing into ostentatious and tyrannical systems a defer- 
ence and tender respect for humanity, then I see 
God in every cradle, and hear Christ speaking in 
*' the least of these." When I see his spirit working 
in history, substituting the sacred tie of brotherhood 
for brutal institutions founded on cynicism and un- 
belief, then, within the heavenly heights of my soul, 



THE soul's CHRISTMAS 9 

the angels sing '' Good will to men." Let me have 
the inner Christmas, and you may have all the 
speculations of the Platonic philosophy as to the 
exact creative agency of the preexistent Logos. 

'' And the child grew," says the record. Growth 
is the charm of childhood. Christ did not descend 
from heaven full-orbed and glorious. He grew, 
'' and waxed strong in spirit." He went from lower 
to higher. His thought unfolded, his purposes 
ripened, his life reached out in widening influence. 
The conquest of the world was merely the expand- 
ing power of his spirit. It was a simple story of 
love, that took wings, and flew beyond the Caucasus 
Mountains and the wild forests of Scythia. The 
fanatical Thracian, the uncultured Celt, the fierce 
Breton, the nomadic Berber on the steppes of 
Africa, began to feel the power of his influence. 
Still it went ringing through the world when Stoic 
and sophist had ceased to teach, when the mys- 
teries of Mythra were but a memory, when the 
cross was seen over the Temple of Vesta and the 
Pantheon. 

A spring gushes forth in the midst of a dead 
pool. The water of the pool is full of silt and 
leeches, is slimy with duckweed and decayed vege- 
tation, is covered with iridescent tints of vileness. 
The seeping waters of the spring force it to find 
an outlet. It begins to sparkle with new life. It 
goes bounding down a declivity. It leaps with 
merry laughter over rocks and obstacles. It fer- 



lO 



THE SOUL S CHRISTMAS 



tilizes the banks of a meadow. It gathers tributaries 
to itself, from the right hand and the left. It turns 
the wheels of industry. It purifies the centers of 
population. It performs a thousand benevolent 
deeds, before it reaches its rest in the everlasting 
sea. 

When first the spirit of a pure, authoritative, dis- 
interested, and divine affection enters the soul it 
is a mere struggling and helpless tendency, an 
obscure and insignificant germ of promise. We are 
ever tempted to despise it. We are ever crowding 
it out of the inn. Weak it is, as the maple-seed 
that is carried on the wings of the wind. Unin- 
teresting it is, as the babe in the barn of a tavern 
compared with the pride of Greece and Rome. 

O Truth ! O Freedom ! how are ye still bom 

In rude stable, in the manger nurst ! 
What humble hands unbar those gates of mom 

Through which the splendors of the New Day burst ! — 
We stride the river daily at its spring, 

Nor, in our childish thoughtlessness, foresee 
What myriad vassal streams shall tribute bring, 

How like an equal it shall greet the sea. 

His birth attracted less attention, caused less 
tremor to pass through the world, than the robbery 
of a caravan in Nubia, or the revolt of a village 
in Gaul, or the burning of a ship in the harbor 
of Ostia. Even a wretched country khan found 
*' no room " for him. There was room for a grain- 
merchant from Csesarea. There was room for a 



THE SOUL'S CHRISTMAS II 

pedler of pearls from Damascus. There was room 
for two or three servants of a rich publican from 
Gaza. There was great excitement in the inn when 
the sheik of a wild tribe of nomads of the desert, 
below Hebron, came rattling into the court. For 
the strong, the proud, the prosperous, the great 
ones of the world, there was plenty of room. It 
was only the truth that was crowded out. It was 
only the riches of God that was spurned in that 
vulgar inn. 

A few years ago the world witnessed the birth of 
a real king. While the young men of Russia were 
perishing on the plains of Manchuria, and little 
ones all over the empire were shut up in hovels, a 
king was born. Amid pealing of bells, and shouts 
of joy, the infant Czarevitch was baptized. The 
baptismal procession was a blaze of barbaric gold. 
The infant, pillowed in a fluff of rarest lace, and 
covered with a mantle of imperial purple, was car- 
ried in the arms of a princess, in a chariot drawn 
by eight milk-white horses, with outriders and walk- 
ing grooms. The font at which the baptismal party 
gathered was encrusted with jewels and gold. The 
holy oil with which the great Metropolitan anointed 
the little one had been compounded in solemn 
secrecy amid the splendors of the Kremlin. And 
so, while the world looked on, the infant was named, 
" Grand Duke Alexis Nicholaevitch, future Czar 
and Autocrat of all the Russias, Czar of Poland, 
Grand Duke of Finland," and much more. To add 



12 THE SOUL S CHRISTMAS 

a touch of unutterable sarcasm to the whole per- 
formance, it was done in the name of the son of 
a carpenter, who was born in the stable of a 
country inn. 

God forgive us for our blindness ! We are ever 
tempted to despise the commonplace. The simple 
act of service, the humble gift of love, the word of 
witness, the deed of gratitude, are crowded out 
of our lives because they wear homespun. What 
was there in the birth of a common child to attract 
attention in Bethlehem? Nothing, save the fact 
that God was entering the world once more. What 
is there in the deed of self-forgetting generosity to 
cause us to give up our ease and pleasure to per- 
form it? Nothing, save the fact that Christ is 
born once more in the soul when we yield to it. 

See him there in the manger! What does he 
know of the vast machinery of law, of the stormy 
power of ambition, of the moving of armies, the 
creeping of caravans, the intrigues of courts, or of 
any of the forces that send their embassies rumbling 
or rushing through the highways of earth? With 
no knowledge or experience to guide him, he lies 
there the very picture of helplessness. But there 
comes a time when he gathers into the sphere of 
his influence the last vestige of the dynasty of the 
Caesars, and rules Europe from the far Caspian to 
the stormy shores of Caledonia. 

So with that impulse of generosity and tender- 
ness, that angel song of good will to men, that was 



THE soul's CHRISTMAS I3 

born in your heart but a moment ago. You can 
no more leave it alone, and expect it to prosper, 
than Joseph and Mary could forsake the Christ-child 
in the desert, and expect him to care for himself. 
You must nourish it. You must encourage it. You 
must carry it in your arms for a time. You must 
obey its behests with loyal love, and protect it 
from every encroachment of brute selfishness. Your 
pride will devour it; your sloth will starve it; your 
anger will trample on it; your indifference will 
smother it ; unless, with true and faithful spirit, you 
care for it and guard it. 

Oh, the delight of watching this first feeble desire 
for a better life grow up from its Christmas mom 
in the soul ! Its healing ministry is first manifest in 
quieting mad passions, and soothing the hurts of 
disappointment. It gathers about it its little band 
of impulses, its twelve disciples, bound together by 
the solidarity of a common hope. Then it begins 
the conquest of the soul. It feels its way trium- 
phantly over the surface of a province. It runs 
into other regions of our life, along the Roman 
roads of habit. It establishes its centers of in- 
fluence, its communities of kind desires, everywhere 
it goes. It reaches out with its influence, to em- 
brace every force and faculty of our life. It carries 
a message of peace and good will, until, at last, 
from a mere echo in the heights of the soul, life 
becomes one grand symphony of God, and Paul's 
wish comes to pass — Christ is formed in you. 



II 

THE WISE MEN 
" Lo, the star . . . went before them." — Matt. 2 : 9. 



II 

THE WISE MEN 

THE marvel of the story of Jesus is its unfailing 
freshness and simplicity. It does not seem 
to grow old with the altering circumstances and 
changing factors of human progress. Like the star, 
it " goes before." Ever advancing, ever new, grow- 
ing as humanity grows, losing no luster with all the 
increase of knowledge and the march of discovery, 
it shines before each generation with added bril- 
liancy and power. Something is here which the 
world cannot overtake — something which reflects 
man's scattered thoughts of God. 

For a time, this Christmas season, let us listen to 
the words of the wise men. Letting our own ex- 
perience and our own belief fall into the back- 
ground, let us assume the role of auditor, while 
others bring their word of witness. What we seek 
is not the different theories of the person of Christ. 
We do not ask for any man's opinion as to the 
historicity of the Gospel narratives. We come with 
but one question: How does this life, reflected in 
the ancient records of Christianity, impress those 
men who have been the world's teachers, the mas- 
ters in things of the mind? For this we will go 
far afield, gathering from every source, wherever 
B 17 



l8 THE soul's CHRISTMAS 

we can find a frank confession that comes from a 
candid soul. 

Let us begin in a strange quarter. We will take 
the witness of a Jew. In the seventeenth century 
there lived a very learned man, who had been edu- 
cated in the Old Testament, the Talmud, the Jew- 
ish commentaries, and the scholastic writers of 
the Middle Ages. He stood on the threshold of the 
modem age. Excommunicated from the sacred 
precincts of the little synagogue in Amsterdam, he 
was forced to take up his residence in the sacred 
precincts of God's universe. Grinding glasses in a 
little shop for a living, he filled the ages with his 
name, and became known as the " God-intoxicated 
man." I would like to know what he thinks of 
Christ. In one place Spinoza declares that our 
very knowledge of good and evil comes from the 
*' Eternal Son of God, f. c, the eternal wisdom of 
God, which has manifested itself in all things, and 
especially in the human mind, and most of all in 
Jesus Christ.'' '^ Christ," he says, " communed with 
God, mind with mind, but this spiritual closeness is 
unique " (quoted by Martineau, '' Types of Ethical 

Theory,"I, 254, 315). 

Let us now take the professional critic. I would 
like to know what a man thinks of Christ who has 
analyzed his own thought, ridiculed superstition, 
stood stanchly for intellectual honesty, cried out 
to be shown the " facts," until every word of un- 
reality fills his soul with horror. I feel sure that 



THE WISE MEN I9 

this man will weigh his words when he comes to 
speak on a question, around which so much of 
the thought and passion of mankind has centered 
for nearly sixty generations. I know one such. He 
was so honest with himself that he would not say 
that he believed in a God. As near as he ever 
came to such a conception was belief in '' some 
Power, not ourselves, that makes for righteousness." 
Yet I find this man saying that '' Jesus Christ came 
to reveal what righteousness really is." '' Nothing 
will do," he says, " except righteousness ; and no 
other conception of righteousness will do except 
Jesus Christ's conception of it: his method and his 
secret" ("Literature and Dogma," page 335). 
When I hear this I say, " All that Matthew Arnold 
knew about God, he found in Christ." 

Let us listen to another man. To him the world 
is the theater of elemental forces, the battle-ground 
of moral struggles of titanic grandeur. He takes 
delight in flaying shams, overthrowing conventions, 
and dragging the mask of pretense from the face 
of common fallacies. He sneers at the self-con- 
gratulations of his age. He is the essence of rugged 
and tyrannical honesty. What does Carlyle think 
of Christ? In one place he speaks of "the most 
important event ever transacted in this world," and 
declares it to be '' the life and death of the Divine 
Man in Judea, at once the symptom and cause of 
innumerable changes to all people in the world " 
(" Heroes and Hero-worship," Lecture H). " The 



20 THE SOUL S CHRISTMAS 

greatest of all heroes/' he cries, '' is One whom we 
do not name here ! Let sacred silence meditate that 
sacred matter; you will find it the ultimate perfec- 
tion of a principle extant throughout man's whole 
history on earth " (" Heroes and Hero-worship/' 
Lecture I). 

Let us now turn to one whose intellectual proc- 
esses lie at the antipodes from those of Carlyle. 
Carlyle had no faith in democracy. This man's 
thought almost amounts to a deification of the com- 
mon people. Carlyle wrote contemptuously of 
" The Nigger Question." This man stood in awe 
of a black man, as of one who bore the very image 
of God. Carlyle was so violent in his arraignment 
of the sins of society that he constantly drifted into 
pessimism. This man's soul never lost the serenity of 
a glowing and expanding hope. I would like to know 
what he thinks of Christ. Does the elevation of the 
common level make the summit seem less glorious? 
Listen to William Ellery Channing : " The sages and 
heroes of antiquity are receding from us, and his- 
tory contracts the record of their deeds into a 
narrow and narrower page. But time has no power 
over the name and deeds and words of Jesus Christ. 
From the darkness of the past they shine forth 
with sunlike splendor " (*' Jesus Christ the Brother, 
Friend, and Saviour/* ed. A. U. A., p. 995). 

We will take a totally different man now. We 
will go out into the region of utility. We will con- 
sult a man whose philosophy has been called " the 



THE WISE MEN 21 

extract of selfishness." His doctrine of '* happi- 
ness " called forth storms of protest from Carlyle. 
His work " On Liberty '' is an intellectual declara- 
tion of independence, which strikes at the despotism 
of public opinion. A more virile, bold, radical 
thinker on philosophical and religious questions 
England has never produced. He says in his Auto- 
biography : " I am one of the very few examples in 
this country of one who has not thrown off religious 
belief, but never had it. I grew up in a negative 
state with regard to it. I looked upon the modern 
exactly as I did upon the ancient religion, as some- 
thing that in no way concerned me" (''Autobiog- 
raphy," Holt & Co., p. 43). I would like to know 
what this man says, when he stands in the presence 
of Jesus. Let us hear the testimony of John Stuart 
Mill : '' Nor, even now, would it be easy, even for 
an unbeliever, to find a better translation of the 
rule of virtue from the abstract into the concrete, 
than to endeavor so to live that Christ would ap- 
prove our life " (" Three Essays on Religion," Holt 
& Co., p. 255). 

We will now turn to one, the subtle charm of 
whose writings captivated the intellectual world for 
a whole generation. He was a strange character. 
Moral enthusiasm, the horror of evil that is born 
of intense conviction, never seem to have been his. 
He saw nobility and baseness in mankind with great 
clearness, but always seemed to look upon them 
as one would view a beautiful or broken statue. 



22 THE SOUL S CHRISTMAS 

Yet, to this day, the world is buying and reading 
his '* Life of Jesus." No better criticism of that 
book was ever given than the words of Amiel, that 
it portrayed a "white-marble Christ" (" Amiel's 
Journal," p. 240). Let us turn to that book and 
find the pages that follow the account of the cruci- 
fixion. For a moment Renan seems to be carried 
away by the majesty of his subject. He exclaims, 
'* Thy divinity is established." He cries, " A thou- 
sand times more living, a thousand times more loved 
since thy death than during the days of thy pilgrim- 
age here below, thou wilt become to such a degree 
the corner-stone of humanity, that to tear thy name 
from this world would be to shake it to its founda- 
tions " C' Life of Jesus," ed. Brentano's, p. 291). 

There is another, vastly different from Renan. 
This man had back of him the martyr blood of 
Huguenots. He had all the boldness, all the seri- 
ousness, all the high spiritual vision of those first 
Protestants, who were hounded from France for 
their faith. The ancient spirit of independence, re- 
maining in his blood, drove him into revolt against 
the stifling formalism, the idolatry of literalism, the 
resurrected tyranny of authority, which he found 
in the Protestant communions of his day. So radical 
were his criticisms, that, despite his broad sym- 
pathies and deep devotion, he was accused of " un- 
belief." How truly he deserved this accusation we 
may be able to judge, if we stand with him for a 
moment in the presence of Christ. Says James 



THE WISE MEN 23 

Martineau: " The pure image of his mind, as it has 
passed from land to land, has taught men more of 
their own hearts than all the ancient aphorisms of 
self-knowledge; has inspired more sadness at the 
evil, more noble hope for the good that is hidden 
there ; and has placed within reach of even the igno- 
rant, the neglected, and the young, severer principles 
of self-scrutiny than philosophy had ever attained " 
(" Endeavors After the Christian Life," p. 147). 

There is another, still different. Martineau dis- 
dained the title " rationalist." This man boasted of 
it. Martineau believed in miracles, and even laid 
great emphasis on them. To this man a belief in 
the miraculous was the sign of an undeveloped 
mentality. He entered upon a historical investiga- 
tion into the unfolding of the moral consciousness 
of Europe, through a period of eight centuries, and 
produced a work that, because of its tireless research 
and impartiality of judgment, has become a classic. 
It chances that the period of his investigation is that 
of the rise of Christianity. I would like to know 
what this man will say, when he confronts the char- 
acter of Jesus. Let us listen to Lecky : '' The moral 
progress of mankind can never cease to be dis- 
tinctively and intensely Christian as long as it con- 
sists of a gradual approximation to the character of 
the Christian Founder. There is, indeed, nothing 
more wonderful in the history of the human race 
than the way in which that ideal has traversed the 
lapse of ages, acquiring a new strength and beauty 



24 THE SOUL S CHRISTMAS 

with each advance of civilization, and infusing its 
beneficent influence into every sphere of thought 
and action " ('' History of RationaHsm in Europe/' 
Vol. I, p. 312). 

Let us take one more. In the realm of historical 
science he stands the foremost scholar of our day. 
The result of his researches is felt in the teaching 
of the schools of every branch of Christianity. Men 
of the most widely divergent opinions acknowledge 
his leadership. A quotation from him is frequently 
used to bolster up a theory, or an article, that other- 
wise might fail to convince. To catch him in a 
mistake is the dream of many a young scholar in 
the German universities. It is surely worth our 
while to listen to the witness of such a man. Let 
us hear what Adolf Harnack says : '' Where can we 
find in the history of mankind any similar instance 
of men eating and drinking with their master, seeing 
him in the characteristic aspects of his humanity, 
and then proclaiming him not only as the great 
prophet and revealer of God, but as the divine dis- 
poser of history, as the ' beginning ' of God's crea- 
tion, and as the inner strength of a new life! It 
was not thus that Mohammed's disciples spoke of 
their prophet" (''What is Christianity?" p. 167). 

So runs the witness of the ''wise men." The 
nature of their testimony is significant. Each one 
sees in Christ that which seems to him to be per- 
manent, virtuous, ideal, divine. If life has for 
him any worthfulness, any secret of spiritual 



THE WISE MEN 25 

majesty, any power of imperishable influence, he 
finds that thing reflected, in its highest form, in the 
life of the Son of man. Christ is the moral example, 
the revealer of righteousness, the expression of 
the eternal wisdom, the supreme picture of the 
heroic, the mirror of hope and guilt, the corner-stone 
of humanity, the ideal that has made history. These 
are not the opinions of rapt mystics or sentimental 
saints. They come from men who have molded the 
thought of their generation, from men who have 
built their names into the intellectual structure of 
the race. Accustomed to measure their words, they 
are not easily swept into extravagant statement. 

Another thing to be noticed is the wide diversity 
they present in mental approach, in spiritual vision, 
in social ideals, in philosophical theory. On what 
other subject can you find such an agreement? 
Search diligently in their writings, and find some- 
thing else on which their testimony is so united. 
Ask them for an opinion of the function of the state, 
the rights of property, the methods of education, or 
the limits of knowledge. They are not even agreed 
over the question of the existence of God, but with- 
out exception they admit that Christ is the highest 
expression of human thought in that direction. 
They hold the most widely divergent views on the 
fundamental moral principle, but they agree that 
whatever that principle is, it is found in its highest 
form in Christ. They interpret history from stand- 
points that are utterly irreconcilable, but the in- 



26 THE soul's CHRISTMAS 

fluence of the spirit of Christ in history they all 
admit to be exceptional and marvelous. So they 
come together. Doubter and dreamer, critic and 
seer, utilitarian and idealist, scientist and litterateur 
for a moment are at one. Each, in the light of the 
truth and hope that is in him, brings to Christ a gift 
more precious than *' gold, and frankincense, and 
myrrh." 

Before we leave this matter let us notice that this 
is just what we find when we open our New Tes- 
tament. There too, we are furnished with a great 
variety of testimony. In the synoptic Gospels, be- 
hind certain minor differences, we find a descrip- 
tion of One who brings the Glad Tidings, who heals 
the diseases of men, who is the friend of the outcast. 
He is the great Messiah, whose kingdom shall flash 
upon the world as the lightning shineth from one 
part of the heaven to the other. When we enter 
the Fourth Gospel we are in a different atmosphere. 
We now feel the influence of philosophy. Christ is 
the *' Logos," the Eternal Word, the infinite Reason 
dwelling within God, who was before all time, and 
by whom all things were made. Above all human 
limitations, free from the power of opposition, he 
is a majestic and divine Character, who can cry, 
*' Before Abraham was, I am." If we turn to the 
Epistles of Paul, we find the thought somewhat dif- 
ferent. Christ is there a supernatural and preex- 
istent Figure, who emptied himself of his divinity 
and became incarnate in sinful flesh, that by his 



THE WISE MEN 2^ 

death and resurrection he might bring men freedom 
from the consequences of sin. Still other concep- 
tions are found. The Epistle to the Hebrews thinks 
of him as a great High Priest, " after the order of 
Melchisedek.'' The Apocalypse pictures him as a 
Lamb upon a throne, to whom is given all dominion 
and power and majesty." 

Here too, we find the same agreement. If there 
was anything beautiful, anything majestic, anything 
imperishable, anything divine in the hopes and ideals 
of men back there in the first century, they found 
that thing in Christ. He was great, beyond their 
loftiest conceptions of grandeur ; lively, beyond their 
fairest imaginings of beauty. He was the chief 
among ten thousand, the captain of salvation, the 
Alpha and the Omega, the Redeemer who for our 
sakes became poor. How beautifully this thought 
has been put in the little poem by Goethe : 

From heaven descending Jesus brought 
The holy wrif s eternal thought. 
To his disciples day and night 
He read the word that works with might. 
Then took it back the way he came, 
But they had rightly caught its aim. 
So, step by step, each one declared 
The way its sense within him fared, 
Each different. Thafs of no account, 
In wit they varied and amount ; 
Yet Christians find in it to stay 
Their hunger till the Judgment Day. 



Ill 



THE MIGHT OF THE MEEK 



"Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the 
earth."— Matt. 5 : 5. 



Ill 

THE MIGHT OF THE MEEK 

ONE of the *' hard sayings '* of Jesus is, 
'' Blessed are the meek : for they shall inherit 
the earth." If he had said, " Blessed are the dread- 
noughts," we might have understood. If he had 
promised dominion to the resourceful, to the ener- 
getic, to the ambitious, he would have expressed our 
ideal. On the other hand, if he had changed the 
latter part of the beatitude, and had promised the 
meek certain inner and mystical rewards, we might 
have assented more readily. If he had said, 
'' Blessed are the meek, for they shall have peace," 
or " they shall have contentment," or '* they shall 
have the approval of God," the promise would have 
seemed reasonable. But to offer them this old 
world, where bluster and brute strength count for 
so much, where civilization is carried forward on 
the end of a gun, where competition drives men 
to such extremes of heartlessness, where science 
makes so much of the doctrine of '' The Struggle for 
Existence," is to make an assertion that risks the 
charge of absurdity. We believe in meekness as an 
occasional virtue, but not as a law of life. We do 
not doubt that there are times when it is better to 
put patience before wrath. We are willing to admit 

31 



32 THE SOUL S CHRISTMAS 

that on certain occasions more can be accomplished 
by forbearance than by violence. But at the basis 
of all our social relationships lies the great principle 
of law, and law is ineffective without a firm and 
hard hand. 

Let me ask you to recall this beatitude in the 
rush of a busy day. It may be that you do not 
feel its incongruity on the Sabbath. In the quiet of 
the hour of devotion it perhaps expresses just the 
ideal you expect. You have grown accustomed to 
hearing this sort of thing in church. But amid the 
hurry of the street, while crowding into a car, in 
the busy office, rushing through the railroad sta- 
tion, in the great manufactory where the mammoth 
machinery groans and heaves with the burden of 
incessant toil, or in some commercial center where 
you are surrounded by the hum of human voices, 
stop and repeat the words, " Blessed are the meek : 
for they shall inherit the earth.'' Ask yourself if 
all that life of throbbing activity is to be ultimately 
under the control of the mild and submissive char- 
acter. Picture to yourself, if you can, that entire 
realm of rumbling ambition ruled over by one who 
is never irritated, by one whose unresentful disposi- 
tion has never been ruffled or provoked. 

If you will do that, you will be almost tempted 
to quote Jesus against himself. You will begin to 
talk about the whip-cords, with which he cleansed 
the temple. You will repeat his withering words 
concerning the deeds of the *' hypocrites.'* You 



THE MIGHT OF THE MEEK 33 

will deny that his character was all mildness and 
submission. You will see the flash of his eye, the 
majesty of his moral indignation, the fearlessness 
that caused men to try to fling him over the brow 
of a hill. Then, suddenly, it may occur to you that 
perhaps you have misunderstood the true nature of 
meekness. 

On this assumption I propose to proceed. I do 
not mean to abandon either element of our paradox. 
I shall cling to the story of the cleansing of the 
temple, and to the essential truthfulness of this 
beatitude. I shall admit the terrible nature of the 
anger of Christ, and shall insist on calling him 
'' meek.'* In this way I hope to redeem the word 
" meekness " from all suspicion of inanity, of lan- 
guid passivity, of sheeplike submission, that it may 
be lifted to its royal position as the king of the 
Christian virtues. 

The first element of meekness, I am convinced, is 
the conquest by a soul of itself. It is such a com- 
plete victory over anger and passion and pride and 
vindictiveness that we are left free to devote all our 
energies to the triumph of principles and the en- 
thronement of truth. Jesus never fought for him- 
self. When men reviled him, he suflfered it. When 
men heaped the greatest indignities on his person, 
he was mute. When his enemies made absurd 
charges against him, he " answered not a word." 
But when he saw pious men '* devouring widows' 
houses," and " for a pretense making long prayers," 



34 THE soul's CHRISTMAS 

the manly indignation of his soul flashed forth like 
lightning. When he saw the place of prayer turned 
into a " den of thieves," he drove the swarm of mer- 
cenary hypocrites into the street. Such indignation 
is deliberate, purposeful, heroic, divine. Anger is 
noble just in proportion to its unselfishness. Indig- 
nation is only '' righteous " when it is disinterested. 
On the basis of this conclusion let us attempt a defi- 
nition of meekness. Meekness is a sinking of our 
own personal desires for the sake of certain un- 
dying interests of the great cause of righteousness 
and truth, which reign supreme in the heart. 

This will enable us to differentiate meekness from 
certain other qualities, like subserviency, mendacity, 
chicanery, and lying diplomacy, which wear its garb, 
but do not possess its spirit. The slave is not meek 
when he calls some tyrannical master a ** blessed 
benefactor '' in order to keep his head on his shoul- 
ders. The politician is not meek when he lays aside 
his conscientious scruples in order to stand in with 
the heads of some powerful organization. The so- 
cial parasite is not meek when he laughs so heartily 
and inordinately at the poor jokes of the millionaire. 
The college boy is not meek when he goes up to ask 
the professor a question after the lecture in order 
to pretend that he is interested. The merchant is 
not meek when he allows the man on the other side 
of the counter to say anything to him, if only he 
can get his trade. All these things are done from 
calculation, from self-interest, from fear, from 



THE MIGHT OF THE MEEK 35 

shrewdness. If these people were genuinely meek, 
according to our definition, they would be likely to 
take a course directly the opposite of the one 
chosen. If they were willing to sacrifice their own 
interests on the altar of some great cause, they 
would fight. Their meekness would drive them into 
battle. The slave would see before him a great 
ideal of freedom. The politician would sacrifice his 
own future to advance the welfare of his country. 
The society man would see in the act of truckling 
to wealth a blow at the virtue of sincerity. The 
student would feel that pretending to be interested, 
when he was not, was to play the traitor to truth. 
The merchant would cling to certain treasures of 
the soul that were worth more to him than a trade. 
Just because these men were meek, just because they 
had subordinated their own interests to the price- 
less principles of God, just because they had learned 
to say, '' What am I, when placed in the balance 
with liberty or right or truthfulness or honor ? " 
they would be driven forth to battle. 

I know there is a subtle issue here. If we hate 
our neighbor, it is very easy to find that a great 
principle is at stake. Does not justice demand that 
wrong be righted? Does not duty command us to 
rebuke sin? Indeed, how can piety prosper, if its 
friends are cowardly? As faithful servants of God 
we are commanded to go forth and give our neigh- 
bor a drubbing. Ask the Christians of Toledo why 
they despoil the Jews of their property. They will 



36 THE soul's CHRISTMAS 

answer that the property is endangering the im- 
mortal souls of the Jews. It is tempting them to de- 
struction. God wants it put to pious uses. Ask 
the Turks in Asia Minor why they are butchering 
the Armenians. They will answer that God com- 
mands it. The Armenians are obstinate. They re- 
sist the truth. The rule of God must be established 
over all the earth. 

Where shall we draw the line? Where shall we 
find the place where cowardice leaves off and toler- 
ance begins? where zeal fades into persecution? 
Where shall we discover the touchstone that shall 
solve for us this everlasting jangle between our duty 
to compromise, and our responsibility to right? I 
know of no answer to these perplexing questions, 
save that to be found in the word '' meekness." 
Only the man, who, in loving obedience to truth, 
has laid aside his prejudice, and renounced his own 
personal desires, has any right to go forth as God's 
warrior. He can fight if he is meek. But that gen- 
erally takes the fight out of us. As soon as we 
begin to look into the matter we find that our 
boasted zeal for the truth, our great desire to 
advance the cause of God, was nine-tenths self- 
exaltation and personal prejudice. 

The knight in the Middle Ages, when about to go 
forth into the world to do battle for the helpless, 
the oppressed, the weak, the downtrodden, brought 
his sword to the great cathedral, and laid it on 
the altar, dedicating it to God. So the champion 



THE MIGHT OF THE MEEK 37 

of truth, before he plunges into strife, must take 
that conviction of his, and bring it reverently and 
unselfishly into the presence of God, renouncing all 
personal glory. Indeed he must be ready to pray, 
" Lord, I will renounce the conviction itself, if it 
be thy v^ill." 

Up among the Highlands of the Hudson there is 
a little tributary, called the '' Rondout River,'' that 
possesses the peculiarity of flowing north, until it 
meets the mightier stream of the Hudson, going 
south. In this way it makes progress by going 
backward. A channel was cut in the mountains, 
back in the dawn of things, and the river, so pliable, 
so gentle, so patiently persistent, willing to go 
around any obstacle, willing to bend before any 
barrier, willing to give up anything but its great life- 
purpose of finding the sea, yielded to the unusual 
circumstances in the midst of which it found itself, 
and so at last accomplished the supreme desire of 
its life. 

Now, if you imagine such a thing, suppose this 
river had been unwilling to yield an inch to-day 
that it might gain a mile to-morrow. Suppose it 
had possessed the human ability to deceive itself, 
and of wanting to have its own way, regardless of 
ultimate consequences. Suppose it had mistaken 
self-will for honesty, pride for sincerity, prejudice 
for loyalty, and so had become convinced that to 
compromise with its surroundings meant to give up 
a great principle. What would have been the re- 



38 THE soul's CHRISTMAS 

suit? Of course the river would have given up a 
far greater thing. 

We see this in the case of a river. Does it not 
hold equally true of a church? What mean these 
wrecked organizations? What means our divided 
Protestantism? Somebody proposes to be honest. 
Somebody is not willing to be wheedled into acts of 
compromise. Somebody intends to cling to his prin- 
ciples. Evidently there is a mistake as to the place 
where principles leave off and prejudices begin. It 
is all right to cling to '' essentials," if we do not 
forget the one great essential, which is to bring 
back every prodigal to the house of the Father. 
Paul said, " Unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that 
I might gain the Jews." This principle has not 
found many followers in the history of organized 
Christianity. It is too meek to accord with the 
worldly ambitions of a militant church. To con- 
quer the world for God has been equivalent to con- 
quering it for the church. 

As long as the world lasts men will not cease to 
look through the pure eyes of Jesus, and feel his 
horror at those who compassed sea and land to make 
a proselyte, and when they had made him, what 
was he ? Their anxiety to build up an organization 
had run away out beyond their gentleness and com- 
passion. They did not realize that the latter is the 
only building power that has any right to be called 
" religious." Here is the secret, and just here we 
have departed most from the ideal of Jesus. To 



THE MIGHT OF THE MEEK 39 

conquer the world for God we must organize, but 
as soon as we do that we forget the reason of our 
coming together, and begin to try to conquer the 
world for our organizations. In other words, we 
have not had the faith to believe that " the meek 
shall inherit the earth." 

There have been men who said that Jesus was 
not a masculine character. His emphasis on the 
passive virtues, his principle of non-resistance, his 
doctrine of limitless forgiveness, his trust in the 
power of affection, have all been pointed to as signs 
of effeminacy. The question is an interesting one. 
It touches the heart of our subject. Before we 
attempt to solve it, let us turn to the pages of his- 
tory, and look at the type of character Jesus has 
produced by his influence. Let us turn to those 
who have studied his teaching most closely, and 
copied his example most faithfully. Look at Luther, 
defying the power of an empire that covered half 
the civilized world. Look at Huss, standing in the 
cathedral at Konstanz, facing the decrees of a hier- 
archy, before which kings trembled. Listen to the 
prayer of Cromwell on the night before he leads his 
Ironsides into battle. Follow Wesley, and stand at 
his side, when he faces the infuriated mob on the 
bleak moor near Burslam. Are these effeminate 
characters ? Evidently there is moral trenchancy in 
the Spirit of Christ as it has manifested itself in 
his followers. Surely some manly vigor must be 
attributed to Him, whose influence, for two thou- 



40 THE SOUL S CHRISTMAS 

sand years, has rebuked every miquitous law, cen- 
sured every enthroned evil, championed every cause 
of the oppressed, in the name of God and humanity. 

In fact, this charge of '' effeminacy " is born of 
an old feeling, which our humanity has inherited 
from its brute ancestry. I refer to the feeling that 
every manifestation of affection is a sign of weak- 
ness. We shall solve our paradox of meekness if 
we assume that directly the opposite is true. We 
shall understand our beatitude if we can be brought 
to see that every great character whose influence 
has counted for the regeneration of humanity, has 
been gentle and tender. Garibaldi was as sensitive 
and as compassionate as a woman. Gordon the 
intrepid, Gordon the iron-hearted, was a bundle of 
affection, a great friend of children. Who has not 
been touched by the last words of the dying Nelson, 
" Kiss me, Hardy ! " Count me over the men who 
have lived and died for a cause, whose names sing 
in the ideals and hopes of the race, who have left 
behind them an influence that has lifted society to 
higher levels of purity and honor, and you will find 
them to be men of gentleness and love. 

We face here the crux of the whole matter. In- 
asmuch as the supreme object of our existence 
on earth is conquest, not alone of nature, but of 
human nature, we must eventually decide just how 
this conquest is to be accomplished. I believe that 
Nietzsche is right. We must choose between Napo- 
leon and Christ. Nietzsche prefers Napoleon. He 



THE MIGHT OF THE MEEK 4I 

is the superman. He is the hero. He is the ideal 
of manhood. Is that true? I have stood in the 
tomb in Paris, and looked down into the crypt, 
where the sarcophagus is surrounded by the torn 
and grimy battle-flags. Before ever I read Nietzsche 
I asked there, " Who is the man of power? " I saw 
the hero, as he was followed by grim armies and 
enthusiastic throngs. I saw the smoking cities, the 
red trail, the provinces and kingdoms gathered into 
the one mighty embrace. Then I saw it all end, 
and I heard the pitiful wail on the lonely island 
in the sea. I asked myself, " What did he leave 
behind him ? " 

From this I turned to another picture. I saw an 
influence creeping into the world from a gallows 
set against a Judean sky. I heard the prayer of the 
wild Berber on the steppes of Africa. I saw the 
Scythian forsaking his brutal practices. I heard 
the hymn of praise, as it stole from the hovel in 
Rome to mingle with the shouts of sensuality on 
the street. I saw the power of a story of love, as 
it went to the milUons of the Anglo-Saxon world, 
carried by the monk Augustine. Over mountains, 
across seas, to far islands in unknown oceans, like 
the rays of light pressing out from a burning center, 
I saw the expanding power of this life. Then I 
heard the words, " I am meek, and lowly in heart," 
and I understood the beatitude, '' Blessed are the 
meek: for they shall inherit the earth." 



IV 



WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST? 



"What think ye of Christ? whose son is he?"— Matt. 
22 : 42. 



IV 
WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST? 

JESUS does not ask this question concerning him- 
self. He refers to an ideal Personality, looked 
for by the Pharisees themselves, to the ancient 
dream of a Being who is to be the incarnation of 
divine Power, the Restorer of lost relations be- 
tween God and man. He is talking to men who 
represent the scholarship of the age. He wants to 
know where they put their emphasis. Whose son is 
the Christ ? You say, " The son of David." Do you 
fancy you can arrive at a great spiritual expectation 
by digging around in ancient genealogies? David 
himself bowed in adoration before that Ideal. The 
trouble with you rabbis is this, you know so much 
about it that you have lost it. 

That is the way I read the passage. I propose to 
ask the old question over again. " What think ye 
of Christ ? " The question seems to possess a pecu- 
liar pertinence at just this time. Not long ago I 
heard an address that sounded like an assignment in 
spiritual bankruptcy. The writer declared that we 
can never know the exact historical background of 
the Gospel narratives. We may as well abandon 
the attempt. Scientific criticism has come to the 
end of a blind alley and faces the wall. That such 

45 



46 THE soul's CHRISTMAS 

a person as Jesus lived is probable. But the story 
is so mingled with Messianic hopes, with popular 
myths, with influences drawn from contemporane- 
ous thought and theory, that we can never disen- 
tangle the fact from the fancy. With this declara- 
tion, he stopped. He seemed to assume that nothing 
was left. He was ready to go out of business. 

It seemed to me to be a rare opportunity. I con- 
cluded to buy the business and try to start it up 
again. I took a New Testament to see what was 
left. As I read, it seemed to me that a figure rose 
from its pages, in clear and glorious outline. It was 
something so simple that it could be grasped by the 
intelligence of a child. The mind of the untutored 
savage could comprehend it. There was nothing 
vague about it. If there was an indefiniteness it was 
to be found in the mind of the man who had tried 
too hard to define. If there was any lost Christ 
it was not the Christ of the Gospels, but the Christ 
of this very sophisticated gentleman who fancied 
he had found the facts. 

The same thing was true of the Christ of the 
Epistles. Most of them were written by a man who 
never saw the historic Jesus. Indeed, he was not 
interested at all in the events of the career of 
Jesus. As far as we know he never saw any docu- 
ments describing that career. Yet he has something 
to say. Sometimes with poetic fervor, sometimes 
with rabbinic analysis, sometimes in language that 
confuses us because of its mystical ecstasy, we find 



WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST? 47 

him endeavoring to tell the story of how he was 
found one day by the conquering love of Christ. 
He cannot insist too much on the fact that that love 
was undeserved. It sought him when he knew it 
not. It paid no heed to his moral worth. It did 
not even wait on his recognition. From the realm 
of light and goodness it came, breaking in on the 
scene of his struggle and his toil, restoring to him 
a hope that was wavering and a faith that had 
failed. Was this experience nothing? 

The fact is that the gentleman who fancied Chris- 
tianity had come to its end was the victim of a 
method. He had overemphasized the importance of 
the scientific spirit. He had been trying too hard to 
understand something, that he would have under- 
stood with perfect clearness if he had never tried. 
Perhaps I can make my meaning clear by a parallel 
case. I read an article not long ago entitled '' The 
Real Saint Francis." The impression it left on the 
mind was that of a mild, medieval fanatic, whose 
reputed miracles were the outgrowth of popular 
fancy, and all whose acts could be explained from 
the " world-view " common to the men of his day. 
The excellent historian who wrote this article 
fancied he had entered into the region behind the 
legends, and had found the Man. In very truth this 
was just what he missed. When I finished the 
article I said : " This is not the real Saint Francis. 
This is not the man who set a whole generation 
dreaming of a divine and stainless life. There is 



48 THE SOUL^S CHRISTMAS 

more truth in the legendary tales than in this 
account." 

From this I learned a lesson. To understand 
any character that has exerted an influence on the 
world we must be able to enter into the principles 
and ideals of which that character was an expres- 
sion. Let no man attempt to write about the 
'' real '' Caesar, or the '' real '' Luther, or the " real " 
Lincoln, or the '' real '' anybody else, until he can 
enter into the loves and resolves called up from the 
hidden regions of the human soul by the magic 
of the personality he is describing. If a man lives 
in the hopes, the dreams, the desires, of great mul- 
titudes of his fellows, that existence is just as real 
as any described by a carefully sifted table of facts 
and statistics. 

Let us take a concrete instance. The historian 
fnust be able to understand what was in the minds 
of the sailors who, in an hour of panic and terror, 
were told that they '' carried Caesar and his for- 
tunes,'' or he will utterly fail to comprehend what 
took place. How did the " real " Caesar convince 
men that he was something more important and 
powerful than wind or wave? Do not tell me that 
the story is a " myth.'' I expected that. I refuse 
to get into a discussion over a side-issue. I grant 
that it is a myth. I insist that *' myth " and '* lie " 
are not synonyms. The myth that ideaHzes a man's 
character may tell more truth about him than a 
diary that records what he had for breakfast. In- 



WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST? 49 

deed, certain forms of ideal truth demand the myth 
as a vehicle. Now, the fact is that this myth we 
have been considering describes the effect which the 
" real " Caesar had on the men of his day. If you 
would understand the difficulty of carrying out such 
a part, try it. Go out in a bark on the ocean, and 
then, when a storm comes up, tell the sailors not to 
fear, because they carry " Robinson and his for- 
tunes." The fact is that in all the records of an- 
tiquity there is no better explanation of the founding 
of the Roman Empire than that contained in the 
story of a wild storm on the Mediterranean, of a 
ship tossed about in helplessness, of panic-stricken 
sailors and despairing passengers, when, amid the 
terror and the gloom, there suddenly rises the 
majestic and commanding figure of Caesar. 

I have read somewhere, in an old document, these 
words, " No man can say that Jesus is Lord save 
by the Holy Spirit." I confess that there have been 
many times in the past twenty years when I have 
come short of that. I have been greatly interested 
in our modem attempts to find the " real " Jesus. 
I have read many, many books, like '' The Life of 
Jesus," by Holtzmann, and Bousset's "Jesus," and 
Arno Neumann's " Jesus/' and Warschauer's 
'' Jesus : Seven Questions," and Wernle's " Sources 
of Our Knowledge of the Life of Jesus," and 
Schweitzer's *' The Quest of the Historic Jesus," 
and many more. I admire the critical scholarship 
of these men. As a general thing, I find myself in 

D 



50 THE soul's CHRISTMAS 

agreement with them. I believe they have done ex- 
cellent work along scientific lines. But the valuation 
of Jesus is not a scientific exercise. When I am 
through with these men I feel that the secret of 
Christianity has not been touched by them. 

The *' real '' Jesus refused to allow religion to be 
buried in the past. He became a great hope, a divine 
ideal, a future expectation, a goal of spiritual at- 
tainment, a realization of the yearnings of the soul. 
By identifying himself with these things he con- 
vinced his contemporaries that his spirit was iden- 
tical with the Spirit of God. That was no small 
part to play. The age passed, and the belief grew. 
Nearly twenty centuries have come and gone, and to 
this day multitudes read the story and say, " Jesus 
is God." I wonder if this has anything to do with 
the " real " Jesus ? 

" But,'' you say, '' I do not believe in miracles. I 
cannot adopt the wo rid- view of the first century. 
I doubt this, and disbelieve that." Wait a moment. 
Let us not get into a discussion over side-issues. 
The question I wanted to answer is this : " Has your 
disbelief grown until that judgment is impossible to 
you, which is the heart of the Christian message? " 
If so, you are most unfortunate. In the primary 
department of every Bible School there is some 
little philosopher who can take you by the hand and 
lead you onward in the quest of the real Jesus. No 
pursuit of a false light was ever more pathetic 
than the scientific effort to find Jesus. It begins 



WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST? 5I 

by saying that we cannot understand him unless we 
look at him in the light of the age in which he lived. 
It ends by missing the whole thing just because it 
cannot enter into the faith and love of early Chris- 
tianity. 

The '' real " Jesus came to a weary, doubting, 
worn-out world, and gave it a new incentive. He 
transformed its impulses. He filled it with a new 
social passion. He put belief into its skeptical 
philososphy. He raised the fallen and disheartened 
elements in society to a new level of existence. 
" This,'' men said, '' is God's attitude toward the 
world.'' They found in Christ God's valuation of 
humanity. It was a question that only faith and 
love could answer. We love persons, not theories 
or things. Character is only inspired by character. 
Will is only aroused by will. 

Christ accomplishes the same results to-day. 
Multitudes turn to the Gospel story and are moved 
by his purity of purpose, his strength of moral 
conviction, his wealth of conquering affection. They 
do not believe that these things are the product of 
our mortal and sinful life. They are something ex- 
ceptional, something heavenly, something divine. 
This power of Christ is to them a matter of experi- 
ence first and theory afterward. He gives them 
higher estimates of the value of existence. He fur- 
nishes them with tasks of service and ideals of social 
purity. He quickens their impulses of sympathy 
and elevates their standards of righteousness. He 



5^ THE soul's CHRISTMAS 

redeems them from the gross and sensuous elements 
in their nature. He brings them hope, resolve, 
loyalty, a trust in their fellow men, a new vision of 
life's meaning and destiny. From this they draw a 
conclusion, '' Jesus is God." 

I raise a question : " What right have we to speak 
of God at all? What do we mean by that word? " 
I find a very suggestive statement in a recent book 
by a Unitarian friend of mine. " The Universal,'' 
he says, " does not attract us until it is housed in the 
individual." When I read those words I felt like 
adding to them. I would say that the Universal 
does not command us, or inspire us, or guide us, 
or redeem us, or do anything else worth mentioning, 
until that happens. Indeed, what do we know about 
the Universal, anyway? We reason toward a Uni- 
versal. We grope our way slowly and blindly out 
along certain universal inferences and ideals. We 
catch glimpses of faint suggestions and glimmerings 
of paths that lead to a Universal. But that is all. 
The thought is vague. Those who will not say, 
" Jesus is God," must tell us what they mean when 
they use the word '' God." 

To be sure, conceptions change. We cannot 
cramp our thought within the forms of any bygone 
.age. The forms alter, but the belief remains. That 
Jesus is God is the permanent content of Chris- 
tianity. It is a belief that is ever new, and that 
ever evades the proudest thought of man. It is a 
belief that all types and classes of men come to by 



WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST? 53 

paths peculiar and diverse. It is a belief that each 
age seeks to bolster up with speculative proofs, in 
volumes that gather dust and are burnt by some sub- 
sequent age. It is a belief that, despite its baffling 
of the mind, leaves it eager in the quest. From all 
this I conclude that it is something too vast for defi- 
nition, but too clear for denial. Like the belief in 
immortality, it is something that we do not believe 
because we have ever demonstrated it; but we are 
always trying to demonstrate it because we believe 
it. It is a spiritual message. It is an inspiring truth. 
It is a transforming conviction. It is something 
that can only be understood by those who have ex- 
perienced it This is what the New Testament 
writers mean by the assertion that Jesus can only 
be known by his own. 

An old proverb says, " No man can paint a tree 
unless he first becomes a tree." That is the same 
as saying that the artist must become a sort of a 
dryad. He must find the secret of the object he 
would reproduce. He must have a sympathetic ap- 
preciation that takes him behind the vail. Let me 
quote from memory the words of a recent lecture 
on art to which I listened : " Raphael and Velasquez 
were the world's greatest portrait painters, because 
of their complete absorption in the character of 
the one they were painting. This is the artistic gift 
of sympathy." Yes, the artistic gift ! Right here we 
will find the difference between a painting and a 
photograph. The photograph endeavors to repro- 



54 THE SOUL S CHRISTMAS 

duce the exact details of the external appearance of 
an object. The painting tries to find the spirit be- 
hind the manifestation. 

Let me apply this principle in a higher realm. I 
will assume that we all believe in God. If there is 
such a Being, how can he reveal himself to man? 
The most natural answer would be : '' Let him be- 
come a man. Let him enter into our life problem. 
Let him show to us the possibilities of our humanity. 
Let him disclose his nature in some being who shall 
be the universal man, the human prototype, the 
farthest fetch of our spiritual existence." We are 
not saved by depersonalized principles. Let us re- 
peat it. The resolves and affections of our nature 
do not surrender to abstractions. To command our 
energies, arouse our sympathies, renew our hope, 
and conquer our faith, the divine Power must be 
incarnate. 

Perhaps you ask, '' Could not any great spiritual 
hero do this as well as Christ ? " That is a question 
I cannot answer in the abstract. I know a better 
way of answering it. I merely ask, "Does he?" 
Has Christ any rival in this matter? For my part, 
I admit that other men have captivated me. I am 
often carried away by the story of the last hours 
of Socrates. There are incidents in the life of 
Luther that stir the heroic in me to its very depths. 
But somehow I never think of comparing the in- 
fluence of these men with that of Christ. He seems 
to me to be something inexhaustible, something su- 



WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST? 55 

premely good, something beyond which our human- 
ity cannot go. They never seem that 

Here is the wonder of it all. Though the blood of 
the most exclusive race the world has ever known 
flowed in his veins, he has become the property of 
all lands and ages. His words can be translated 
into any language, and instantly they seem to be 
indigenous. His character can be transplanted to 
any country, and at once he seems to be a child of 
that land. He is the world's great cosmopolite. 
He is at home in the schools of Greece. The wild 
Berber on the desert plains of Africa approaches 
him as a brother. German professors write endless 
volumes about him. The men gathered in labor 
conventions doff their caps at the mention of his 
name. 

In the Mahabharata there is a story that contains 
an element of deep suggestiveness. There was 
once a maiden who was to choose her lover from 
a gathering of heroes. She knew that in the assem- 
bly there was to be found the one whom she truly 
loved. But when the time came for the choice, she 
was perplexed and greatly distressed. There were 
five beings just like him. Four of the gods loved 
her, and, in the hope of influencing her choice, im- 
personated her lover. Then she prayed them, with 
great fervency and power of persuasion that they 
would resume their divine form. They did so. 
They stood before her shining and glorious. Their 
feet did not touch the earth. Their garlands were 



56 THE soul's CHRISTMAS 

as fresh as if newly gathered. Not a stain of dust 
was on their garments. Then the maiden, to their 
surprise, turned to her dust-stained lover. He was 
more to her than the immaculate gods. 

Let criticism do what it will with the Gospel 
records. It may be that it will convince us all some 
day that Jesus of Nazareth was not like certain 
abstract, lofty, generalized conceptions of God, 
whose feet do not touch the earth. But in the 
hour of its triumph, it will meet with a surprise. 
The heart of humanity will speak. The world will 
turn to its dust-stained Christ, who walks our streets 
to-day as truly as he did the streets of old Caper- 
naum. There will be a cry of devout affection, as 
men turn once more to follow him in the long, long 
quest of *' the city which hath foundations, whose 
builder and maker is God/' 



ABOVE EVERY NAME 



*' God hath highly exalted him, and given him a name 
above every name." — Phil. 2 : 9. 



ABOVE EVERY NAME 

CONTRAST this proud declaration, " God hath 
highly exalted him, and given him a name 
above every name," with that presented by our very 
familiar Christmas picture. We see the bam of the 
humble inn. We look upon the beasts of burden 
tied there, belonging to the pilgrims who are jour- 
neying to their home city. We stand by the cradle 
of straw, and note the conditions that crowded him 
out of better quarters. What is there in this to war- 
rant such extravagant words as those of the apostle? 
It is seemingly the most ordinary of all events. 
It is simply the entrance into the world of another 
peasant child. Who could believe that he would be 
exalted above all the great of earth ? Great leaders, 
law-givers, rulers, poets, prophets, and warriors lent 
luster to the history of his people. Could any one 
suspect that this child would be known and revered, 
until his name should eclipse that of Abraham, of 
Moses, of David, of Solomon, of Isaiah? Indeed 
there were scribes and rabbis, like Elieser, Joses, 
and Akiba, whose names were authority in settling 
the disputes that abounded in religious circles. 
Whisperings of the plots of the Herods, and of the 
plans of the Roman commander in Antioch, filled 

59 



6o THE soul's CHRISTMAS 

the air till it was heavy with suggestions of the 
workings of political and military power. 

If we take a broader look the contrast becomes 
still more striking. In the Imperial City the second 
Caesar is just closing his long and brilliant reign of 
forty-five years. It is an age that marks the sum- 
mit of Roman power and splendor. Great com- 
manders, like Drusus, Tiberius, and Germanicus had 
brought the most distant provinces under the do- 
minion of the Roman arms. These were the names 
that were '* above every name." It was the crown- 
ing age of Latin literature and art. Virgil, Horace, 
and Ovid had immortalized their native tongue. 
These men were destined to be renowned through 
all the centuries. The world still feels the charm 
of their names. But above these, in the judgment 
of the day, was the greatest of all men, the patron 
of literature, the head of the armies, the ruler of 
the lands. Of his glory the others were but re- 
flections. He was destined to give his name to the 
age. It was Augustus, whose name was '' above 
every name." He was " the divine Caesar." A 
hundred years pass and we find the most careful 
and far-seeing historian of antiquity recording the 
events of this age as if nothing of consequence had 
happened in Palestine. Tacitus but gives a passing 
notice to Him who was born in the manger. He 
speaks of him as the founder of a '* pernicious 
superstition." Christ is only mentioned at all be- 
cause his followers, who were " hated for their 



ABOVE EVERY NAME 6l 

wickedness/' and belonged to the class that be- 
lieves in things " vile and shameful/' were accused 
of the burning of Rome. 

Another interesting contrast presents itself. 
Tradition says that Paul wrote this Epistle to the 
Philippians while chained to a soldier in the city of 
Rome, during the reign of Nero. Let us turn once 
more to Tacitus, and take his description of what 
was happening to Paul's fellow disciples. " They 
were wrapped in the hides of wild beasts/' he says, 
'' and torn in pieces by dogs, or nailed to crosses, or 
set on fire, and when day declined were burned to 
serve for nocturnal lights/' Whether it be true or 
not that Paul wrote these words under such condi- 
tions, the contrast is not altered. It was the loath- 
some Nero whose name was *' above every name." 
The poets of the age were assuring him that there 
was not a deity in heaven who would not esteem it 
an honor to give place to him. They told him that 
he must occupy the center of Olympus when he 
died, or the equilibrium of the universe would be 
destroyed. They called him the '' Savior of the 
World." Think of the faith of Paul, writing these 
jubilant words in such an age. It took spiritual in- 
sight to see how small a part the Golden Palace 
played in the purposes of God. 

Time has vindicated Paul's judgment. On the 
very spot w^here stood the circus and gardens of 
Nero there now stands a little Christian temple. 
Here, every day, prayer goes up to Him, who, to 



62 THE soul's CHRISTMAS 

Tacitus, was just a criminal, put to death '' in the 
reign of Tiberius." The influence of his name, scat- 
tered through the lands and centuries, has continu- 
ally manifested itself in nobler deeds, happier homes, 
purer customs, gentler impulses, and all the fruits 
of a redeemed humanity. This is the charm and 
power of Christianity. This is its badge of au- 
thority. This is its ideal. *' Unto the measure of the 
stature of the fulness of Christ," it says. Whether 
the preacher stands, as did Chrysostom, in a mag- 
nificent temple, like Saint Sophia, proclaiming his 
message to the court and ruler of the capital city of 
the world, or whether he goes afar off, as did the 
Benedictine monk Augustin, to the half-savage 
Anglo-Saxons, to tell the story to King Ethelbert 
and his subjects, the source of his influence and 
authority is found in the name that is " above every 
name." 

So our Christmas story tells of a Man of Poverty, 
who brought the real riches to earth. It tells of One 
who found his followers, not where the gifts of 
life were most profuse, but where they were most 
meager; not in senate-chambers of successful am- 
bition, but among the fainting and oppressed. " Not 
many mighty " were called. The first converts to 
Christianity were among the lowly. A few were 
found in the palace of the Caesars, but it was 
mostly the dwellers in dungeons and galleys who 
felt the power of the Name. A cultured Greek, 
Celsus by name, describes it as a movement that 



ABOVE EVERY NAME 63 

spread chiefly among weavers, tanners, and cobblers. 
Indeed, this was its boast. Its mission was to min- 
ister and serve. Those who were crushed by the 
hard hand of oppression; the ignorant whose souls 
were filled with vague longings that they could not 
understand; the discouraged, from whom happiness 
and hope seemed fast slipping away — these all found 
a friend in the Nazarene. It was this that exalted 
his Name. 

When I turn to the Gospels, it is not the miracles 
that impress me. The most miraculous thing about 
Jesus was his power over persons. He takes captive 
all types and-conditions of character. He visits the 
home of a dishonest and mercenary publican, and 
the man is suddenly filled with a resolve to restore 
fourfold for all he has wrongfully taken. He calls 
to discipleship a skeptical and calculating man, and 
so fills him with the heroic that he exhorts his fel- 
lows to follow the Master to Jerusalem to " die with 
him." He calls forth elements of purity and 
strength from the character of a woman of the 
town, who had touched the lowest levels of social 
degradation. He appeals to a cursing and impulsive 
fisherman, and there comes a time when his rugged 
nature rises to heights of majestic resolve and divine 
vision. 

From these things I can draw but one conclusion. 
I know that man is only changed by some Power 
above or beyond himself. All our moral advance is 
through a spiritual energy that is above what we are 



64 THE soul's CHRISTMAS 

in ourselves. A new content comes into life. We 
are transformed. It is an inward operation, to be 
sure, but accomplished through a spiritual power 
superior to any human capacity. When I see Christ 
accomplishing this, not only in his own day, but 
repeating it all through the centuries, I conclude that 
he was more than human. 

As for his relation to the Absolute, I see little 
need of trying to settle that just now. It is sufficient 
for me that in him I find a revelation of God beyond 
the measure of any experience to which I have yet 
attained. To appropriate that more fully is to me 
the essence of discipleship. I shall never know, 
therefore, just how completely Christ is the expres- 
sion of God until I have overtaken him. As that 
seems to be a somewhat remote possibility, I am 
content to leave my Christology unformulated. It 
is in tlie making. I can only say, " It will be finished 
when I come to ' the measure of the stature of the 
fulness of Christ.' '' 

He is the circled completeness of the Christian 
life. In him we find it in all its fulness and perfec- 
tion. He stands at the beginning to guide our tot- 
tering footsteps, and he stands at the end to put 
the laurel wreath upon our brow. There is no task 
so lowly that we cannot find him hiding behind it ; 
there i§ no goal of faith so lofty that he is not there 
when we reach it. No man is so sinful that he 
cannot find him ; no man is so perfect that he does 
not need him. In all history there is not another 



ABOVE EVERY NAME 65 

who SO broods over the highest heights and lowest 
depths of human life. He is "the chief among 
ten thousand/' He is '' the first and the last." 

Think of what all this means. Would any fol- 
lower of Immanuel Kant venture to say that he 
uttered the last word in philosophy, and that with 
him all speculation as to the limits of reason came 
to an end ? There have been '' Neo-Kantians/' and 
*' Kantian revivals/' and a " right and left wing of 
the Kantian school," but among all the devotees 
of the Konigsberg philosopher there never has been 
one who had the temerity to make such a claim. 
Would any disciple of Wagner risk the ridicule 
that would follow the declaration that the measure 
of music was filled up when the great master ceased 
to compose? There have been extravagant claims 
made for him. The tourist who would secure a 
seat in the immense auditorium at the Wagnerian 
Festival in Beyreuth is often told that he must 
apply a year in advance. And yet, among all the 
thousands of pilgrims who pour into that little 
German town, there is not one who would make 
such a statement. 

Yet we find the apostle saying that the goal of 
human life is " the measure of the stature of the 
fulness of Christ." In this declaration he is joined 
by many of the wisest, the proudest, the purest of 
mankind. These men have said that Jesus Christ 
was a perfect man. They have said — which may 
be the same thing — that he was the very highest 

E 



(^ THE soul's CHRISTMAS 

revelation of the spirit and nature of God which 
it is possible for humanity to receive. There is a 
place near Interlaken, in Switzerland, which is re- 
nowned because it is such an excellent point of 
vision from which to look at the Jungf rau. Some of 
the noblest of the human race have rejoiced to take 
their own glory, and their own achievements, and 
use them as an opportunity to point men to Christ. 
He fulfils our hopes, meets our needs, answers our 
problems, inspires our efforts. Into his life, as 
into a mirror, all classes and conditions of men have 
looked, and have seen there a reflection of the 
desires and aspirations of their own souls. He is 
the realized dream of faith. 

What better proof of the finality of the Christian 
religion do I need than this? Can I find a higher 
testimony than the record of what Christ has done 
for the world? Is it not enough that wherever his 
Spirit touches the earth, tyranny begins to tremble, 
violence vanishes away, the power of slavery is 
broken, the light of love replaces the darkness of 
sin, the voice of conscience is heard above the cries 
of passion, and all the blossoms of brotherhood be- 
gin to revive? There are some who talk as if this 
evidence were inferior to the testimony of the 
creeds. On the contrary, the creeds are but feeble 
efforts to put this cumulative witness into words. 
For my part, I would as soon doubt the testimony 
of my senses, I would as soon question the existence 
of an object before my eyes, as to refuse to accept 



ABOVE EVERY NAME 67 

this. The strongest of all arguments for the Chris- 
tian religion is the record left by Christ of hearts 
mellowed, of lives made happy, of bitter experiences 
sweetened, of sorrows turned into joy. 

I will take another step. I will challenge you to 
take this away from me. Show me anything that 
will do more, any influence better fitted to upUft the 
heart and purify the life of humanity, any teaching 
or example that makes higher provision for the 
strengthening of our spiritual nature, and I will 
accept it. Though you find it in the hut of a savage 
on the island of Nunivak, though you dig it out of 
the cave of a troglodyte in the mountains of Cap- 
padocia, I will gladly make it my religion. Prove 
to me that the Puranas of Brahmanism teach it, and 
I will become their disciple. Show me that the 
Lamaism of Tibet reveals it, and I will adopt that 
cult. It is not prejudice that makes me a Christian. 
I have no desire to cling to anything in the face 
of the light of experience, or the testimony of time. 
I will count it a happy day when I am rid of every 
atom of superstition or unfounded belief. 

These are days of universalism in thought. 
Knowledge runs to and fro in the earth. The par- 
tizan is despised. And, yet, on this Christmas Day, 
it is a joy to me to tell just what it is that makes 
me a Christian. When I see a succession of wit- 
nesses coming down through the centuries, all re- 
peating the same story from a thousand different 
experiences ; when I hear a testimony coming from 



68 THE soul's CHRISTMAS 

the prison, the hospital, the retreat for the aged, the 
famine-stricken land, all agreeing that the deed of 
love was inspired by Him; when I see men ex- 
changing the greed of gain for the joy of service, 
and turning from the restless pursuit of unworthy 
aims to the high calling of a child of God, all 
through the influence of a sublime Personality — 
what conclusion shall I reach? Above all, when I 
find this verified in my own experience and discover 
that the Spirit of God in Christ helps me triumph 
over difficulties, face hard problems, and meet the 
uncertainties of life with unfaltering faith — what 
shall I say ? This I will say. By a law as enduring 
as that which guides the very stars of night I am 
compelled to declare that Christ is '' the power of 
God and the wisdom of God." 

I am told that Christmas is simply an old pagan, 
festival. It is the myth of the return of the sun- 
god. Wihat care I for that? I am still enough of 
a child, or a poet, to find that this discovery of its 
origin makes it all the more significant. Let me 
explain. We have passed the shortest day of the 
year. The sun has started back toward the zenith. 
How many cold days we shall yet have before the 
winter begins to feel the influence of spring ! Bitter 
winds, night frosts, chilling storms, drifting snows 
will delay and hinder for a long time the final 
triumph of light over darkness, of sunshine over 
cold. Even after the first flowers have begun to 
blossom in southern lands and life, with its bursting 



ABOVE EVERY NAME 69 

buds and green fields, commences its steady march 
up over the grim domain, there v^ill be days that 
seem to retard the progress, and prolong the period 
of bleak desolation. But of the end there can be 
no doubt. The sun has started back. The winter 
is doomed. Wild v^inds must eventually lose their 
harshness. Sere and barren fields must some day 
be clothed in green. Bluebells and forget-me-nots 
must climb the rugged sides of the mountains. This 
much I can learn from the old myth of the sun-god. 
This I can learn from the Christmas stories. 
Christ is the light of the world. The triumph of the 
Sun of Righteousness over the cold winter of sin 
and selfishness has begun. What though the ages 
move slowly! What though frosts of cynicism and 
doubt retard the life that is struggling into tender 
beauty ! The outcome is sure. That I cannot doubt. 
Wild forces of wickedness may reign for a time. 
Cruelty and intolerance may hinder the longed-for 
summer of belief. I cannot despair. I know that 
the brightness of his love will yet conquer the cold, 
and scatter the forces that now render desolate the 
lands of earth. The new life, the life of brother- 
hood, the life of sympathy and helpfulness, will 
manifest itself in splendor. Our social deserts will 
blossom as the rose. In a real sense Christmas is 
the breaking of the light of heaven into human his- 
tory through a life that shall go on to nobler con- 
quests, until throughout the whole earth his name is 
" above every name." 



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